Nassau bus accidents drop 60% under Veolia (Newsday reports that Bus Accidents are DOWN in Nassau)

The rate of accidents on Nassau buses went down by 60 percent in the first six months that Veolia Transportation operated the bus system as compared with the same period last year, Veolia and MTA records show.

While the Metropolitan Transportation Authority says that severe weather early in 2011 played a role, NICE chief executive Michael Setzer said the drop has more to do with Veolia's increased focus on safety.

From January through June 2012, NICE buses were involved in 1.35 accidents for every 100,000 miles they were on the road, according to Veolia figures. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority had an accident rate of 3.36 per 100,000 miles in the first six months of 2011, according to its figures.

The MTA operated Nassau's bus system from 1973 until Dec. 31 of last year.

Transportation consultant Dennis McNeill, of Thousand Oaks, Calif., said that comparing a full year of service, rather than six months, would give a better picture of both agencies' accident rates.

Veolia and MTA officials say their data for the first six months of the year take into account every incident of a bus coming in contact with another object, including minor brushes with utility poles or clipping a car's side-view mirror.

MTA spokesman Kevin Ortiz said the agency's figures should be mitigated by the severe weather in the first two months of 2011 as compared with the mild weather early this year. In addition, Ortiz said, there were more buses driving more routes.

"There are different factors involved -- one being that buses last year traveled more than a million more miles than NICE due to the fact that we provided more service," Ortiz said.

Setzer said that the difference in miles traveled between MTA Long Island Bus and NICE should not affect the accident rate. He acknowledged that snow and icy roads early in 2011 would have contributed to more accidents, but not enough to account for the disparity between the two agencies' accident rates.

"When the weather is bad, I wouldn't be shocked at a small uptick in the number of accidents, but nothing of this scale," Setzer said. "I think part of it is that our approach to safety is probably more intense. For private companies, safety is a bottom-line issue."

Setzer said NICE's accident rate factors into its insurance costs and also is an important indicator of managers' performance. To that end, Setzer said, employees attend hourlong training meetings each month.

NICE officials said the company also has improved maintenance on its fleet of 300 buses, which, unlike the MTA, are subject to regular state Department of Transportation inspections.

McNeill disputed Setzer's assertion that the 1.17 million more miles that the MTA traveled as compared with NICE was statistically irrelevant.

"If you drive more miles, you're going to spend more hours exposed to hazards," said McNeill, who has worked in the bus industry for 40 years. "A bus that's in the garage is not going to have an accident."

Independent figures compiled by the Federal Transit Administration also show NICE has reduced the number of bus accidents in the first five months of 2012.

According to the FTA's National Transit Database, which considers only major bus collisions, MTA Long Island Bus averaged five accidents per month from January until May, compared with 2.17 for NICE.

Nationally, public transportation agencies averaged 0.37 accidents a month in 2011, according to the database.

Pat Bowden, president of the Transport Workers Union Local 252, which represents NICE drivers, said she's skeptical of the figures and has observed a more frequent occurrence of accidents among drivers since Veolia took over, especially among inexperienced drivers.

Setzer noted that most of NICE's drivers were brought over from MTA Long Island Bus. He added that the accident rate for new drivers, who had to undergo 140 hours of training, is slightly lower than that of former MTA bus operators.

County Executive Edward Mangano, who pushed for privatization of Nassau's bus system last year, said in a statement that NICE has "truly proven to be a more safe, affordable and reliable option for Nassau County residents."
---newsday

Narcissistic Personality Disorder: Traits and signs

Thomas suggests that narcissists typically display most, sometimes all, of the following traits:

An obvious self-focus in interpersonal exchanges

Problems in sustaining satisfying relationships

A lack of psychological awareness (see insight in psychology and psychiatry, egosyntonic)

Difficulty with empathy

Problems distinguishing the self from others (see narcissism and boundaries)

Hypersensitivity to any insults or imagined insults (see criticism and narcissists, narcissistic rage and narcissistic injury)

Vulnerability to shame rather than guilt

Haughty body language

Flattery towards people who admire and affirm them (narcissistic supply)

Detesting those who do not admire them (narcissistic abuse)

Using other people without considering the cost of doing so

Pretending to be more important than they really are

Bragging (subtly but persistently) and exaggerating their achievements

Claiming to be an "expert" at many things

Inability to view the world from the perspective of other people

Denial of remorse and gratitude

Hotchkiss' Seven Deadly Sins of Narcissism

Hotchkiss identified what she called the seven deadly sins of narcissism:

Shamelessness: Shame is the feeling that lurks beneath all unhealthy narcissism, and the inability to process shame in healthy ways.

Magical thinking: Narcissists see themselves as perfect, using distortion and illusion known as magical thinking. They also use projection to dump shame onto others.

Arrogance: A narcissist who is feeling deflated may reinflate by diminishing, debasing, or degrading somebody else.

Envy: A narcissist may secure a sense of superiority in the face of another person's ability by using contempt to minimize the other person.

Entitlement: Narcissists hold unreasonable expectations of particularly favorable treatment and automatic compliance because they consider themselves special. Failure to comply is considered an attack on their superiority, and the perpetrator is considered an "awkward" or "difficult" person. Defiance of their will is a narcissistic injury that can trigger narcissistic rage.

Exploitation: Can take many forms but always involves the exploitation of others without regard for their feelings or interests. Often the other is in a subservient position where resistance would be difficult or even impossible. Sometimes the subservience is not so much real as assumed.

Bad boundaries: Narcissists do not recognize that they have boundaries and that others are separate and are not extensions of themselves. Others either exist to meet their needs or may as well not exist at all. Those who provide narcissistic supply to the narcissist are treated as if they are part of the narcissist and are expected to live up to those expectations. In the mind of a narcissist there is no boundary between self and other

Aggressive Narcissism

This is Factor 1 in the Hare Psychopathy Checklist, which includes the following traits:

Re: Newsday reports that Bus Accidents are DOWN in Nassau

Absolute bullshit-just like everything else Veolia says about how great things are.They don't tell you about all the talented new drivers they're hiring-like the one who drove around for 5 hours trying to find Long Beach coming from the depot.

Re: Newsday reports that Bus Accidents are DOWN in Nassau

An obvious self-focus in interpersonal exchanges - YES
Problems in sustaining satisfying relationships - YES
A lack of psychological awareness (see insight in psychology and psychiatry, egosyntonic) - YES
Difficulty with empathy - YES
Problems distinguishing the self from others (see narcissism and boundaries) - YES
Hypersensitivity to any insults or imagined insults (see criticism and narcissists, narcissistic rage and narcissistic injury) - HECK YES
Vulnerability to shame rather than guilt - UNKNOWN
Haughty body language - UNKNOWN
Flattery towards people who admire and affirm them (narcissistic supply) - UNKNOWN (Have to find someone who admires/affirms him)
Detesting those who do not admire them (narcissistic abuse) - VERY MUCH SO
Using other people without considering the cost of doing so - UNKNOWN (need to have relationship with someone in order to use them)
Pretending to be more important than they really are - YES
Bragging (subtly but persistently) and exaggerating their achievements - MOST DEFINITELY
Claiming to be an "expert" at many things - YES (even if real expertise is only limited to mailroom operations)
Inability to view the world from the perspective of other people - YES
Denial of remorse and gratitude - YES

Re: Newsday reports that Bus Accidents are DOWN in Nassau

Damn you - leave the man alone! How many people, if this is really his job, have the pleasure of opening envelopes and licking stamps each day. Of course, I don't really believe he works in a mailroom..... In my opinion, it's all an act.

Yes, they may have changed or mis-classified accidents or incidents(intentional on-purpose). In the MTA a passenger fall is classified as an accident, it is possible tht NICE classifies that as an incident, that alone will fluff the numbers.